You never think something is going to change the world. Well, maybe this thought occurs if you happen to be a scientist pursuing those complex nuggets of progress and cancer cures and things – but most of us are probably not paying attention to how the ripple effects of day-to-day butterfly-wing-moments are going to play out (did everyone get this disjointed chaos theory reference? Yes? Ok, good.).

Maybe not most of us. Maybe it’s mostly just me and I only want to talk about myself. This is accurate.

I like to make what I call “belly decisions”. These are the kind that originate from that primordial place somewhere in the ribcage and below, resting in the spot where – at some point – we may have had instincts to run away from saber-toothed tigers. It’s possible some of you may only recognize them when you eat too much candy. But they happen all the time, rumbling around when you do things like casually meet your soulmate at an inappropriate time, choose to buy a harpsichord on Amazon.com – or find yourself suddenly hit over the head with beautiful writing. I almost exclusively live with my belly thoughts, and while this can make online shopping dangerous, it almost never leads me astray in the world of words.

These kind of belly thoughts change my world. And I feel like all of the world would be a better place if more people joined me here. Maybe that’s too much tummy ache for you. I don’t know. But, if nothing more, why not join me elsewhere? Tomorrow night, Friday, November 9th, marks another month for the InKY Reading Series. Bundle your belly and head off into a darker night and catch writers Lynn Pruett and Ellen Birkett Morris starting at 7:30pm at The Bard’s Town[4].

The author of the novel, Ruby River, Kentucky writer Lynn Pruett also divides her time farming in Salvisa and teaching the craft at Murray State’s low-residency MFA program. With work featured in the pages of Michigan Quarterly Review, Border Crossing, American Voice, Southern Exposure and the Louisville Review, Pruett’s writing has also earned her an Al Smith Fellowship from the KY Arts Council as well as the Kentucky Foundation for Women.

Also hitting the mic tomorrow, poet Ellen Birkett Morris has published her noted work in the likes of Thin Air Magazine, The Clackamas Literary Review, Juked, The Pedestal Magazine Political Anthology, Alimentum, Gastronomica and Inscape. The author of the collection Surrender, Morris is a recipient of a 2013 Al Smith fellowship for fiction and was additionally nominated for the 2006 Pushcart Prize for her poem, “Origins”.

Both of these literary ladies will grace the halls of Bardstown’s Bard’s Town to fill your bellies with something good and fluttery. Join them tomorrow along with a host of open mic-ers and the theatrical talents of Bottoms Up! Productions for a place to practice the deep down Feeling of Good Gut Things – and – perhaps, my dears – you too will recognize the belly barometer the next time it begs to be felt.